For a nation whose troops have a history of taking pleasure and good at mutilating civilian bodies of other nations, tattoos with its pain taking was an extrovert expression of such ‘bravado’.

Today in post WW2 Japan, male tattooing is taking on a new meaning quite unique to Japan, in that it reveals a mentally tortured complex of having their clipped pride of aggression coming to term with the unspoken shame of submission to de facto foreign occupation irrespective of benevolence on the part of the US. And they have to deal with this reality almost on daily basis.

That partially explains why male tattoo in Japan is such a love-hate issue, in politics as well as in other aspects of lives.

I hate tattoos, that is why I don't have any. I love liberty, which is why I would never tell anyone else what to do with their bodies. I think a campaign of opinion influencing would be more consistent with Japan's modern democracy.

Hashimoto is showing more and more of himself recently with these ploys. The word clown suddenly comes to mind. People have been numbed and dumbed down over the decades. They are like sitting ducks
for a politician who is savvy at being different. People love fads.
Some people get at the end of a line just to find out what is going on, but when it's over it's over. He will be over.

One important historical footnote:
During the Tokugawa Shogunate, Convicts were tatooed on the shoulders to make them easily identifiable (rather like orange prison jackets in the US today, but even more foolproof). This led to a justifiable stigma attached to tatoos in Japan. This did not stop more elaborate tatoos being sported by rebellious minded citizens.

Having said that, at least two governors of Edo (Tokyo's old name during the Tokugawa Shogunate) are recorded to have sported tatoos (though not as a mark of conviction). They probably had similar streak to Mr. Hashimoto today.

from TE: ‘Then he pulls back his sleeve a few inches to show the start of swirling decorations travelling up his arm. The simple act of revealing those tattoos, he says, is supposed to intimidate’
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I find these sentences near the end of the article interesting and philosophically alarming.

having based in japan with troops, ships and fighter jets for over 70 some years with no end in sight, have americans ever thought about how the once proud japanese feel about all this occupation?

the japanese may not say much these days for fear of antagonising americans, are they just bidding their time? when americans are not looking, will japan pull back its sleeve a few inches to show the start of swirling…., like it did at pearl harbour?

What possibly could be missing from God endowed Body and Soul that needs engraving,bleeding,colouring,caricaturing?
....Japanese Youth is lost,confused generation of Japan.

....Go and ask your elders or Japanese Masters still practising Arts such as Japanese style Wood Cuts and applying colours to make Mount Fuji come alive....

Cite me Japanese Youth aspiring for Nobel Prize,percentage of students at higher education,multicolour tattood Japanese youth gang roaming Tokyo after mid night having after drink brawl,say this is hogwash too,which is not far worse than urinated streets of Japan.

...yes Yakuza/Gokudo for Japan's underworld as gang leader's trade mark is good indentification device before the overworked Japanese police arrive on the scene....

Mr. Hashimoto is an opinionated man. This is to his credit in a country where politicians are busy with inter and intra-party feuds, and try to avoid offending anyone for the remainder of the time. However, I would admire him more if he would stick to issues of real substance, such as when he baldly stated that bus drivers in his city are overpaid (which is correct, if the figures I read are true). Furthermore, how is pressurizing employees to conform going to help Osaka or Japan. Existing social pressures in this country are already huge.

almost all of these comments are irrelavent converging to borderline nonsense. the underlying purpose of tat's generally among people with them is an exterior expression of inner feelings, experiences, trauma's, happiness etc that they felt and wish to have embedded on themselves. are tattoo wearers generally stereotyped? yes. the point of the article is whether politicians, ideologes and overzealous policers of other should be able to sanction people for the very personal choices they made to alter their skin profile. if someone tattoo's their face, neck, hands etc and is employed in the public sector then yes perhaps there is sufficient reason as they are the outer representation of the state and 'general will' of 'society' at large (and until that society is majority tattoed then cover them up or keep them private). but if these tattoo's are private then noone should have the right to invade your body.

Japan has one of the highest post secondary education rates in the world (I believe 5th but definitely top 10) and unlike western countries much of those at post secondary institutions are studying hard sciences. Japan has almost no crime and I have never seen a brawl in Tokyo. Anytime I have ever seen a fight it was between two foreigners.
Overworked Japanese police is a joke! They are cross guards! The only time I see a Japanese police officer doing work, he (or she) is giving directions. This isn't a knock against the police but just a fact that there is no crime.